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Thrax the Darkener
Biography ''"Leaving no vestige of your kingdom's failures will open the gates only for greatness." ''-Thrax when planning the Vitaranist Book Burnings of 2,639 with Councilor Zorothuzad. Thrax Morzirus Dawnblade L (Valthian: ‡rax Morðirus Solae‡ecus) was born into the Valthian Royal Family, raised by the 49th King of Valthiar, Primus Dawnblade, as well as Queen Sertoria Dawnblade. Primus and Sertoria tried for three years to have a child, fearing that they may not ever be able to continue on the royal bloodline that had ruled Valthiar for thousands of years. Finally though, in 2,622 V.R, Thrax was born, becoming the only child of the 49th King of Valthiar. Growing up, Thrax's parents were worried of how well he'd rule when the day came for him to inherit the throne. This is because he spent much of his time reading from strange grimoires in the Grand Library, and also possessed the disturbing hobby of torturing small animals such as puppies and kittens. When demanded by his father to never read from the grimoires again, this deeply upset Thrax, and instead he would sneak down to the Grand Library at night to read from the grimoires. Being that the Grand Library was massive and contained almost every subject matter known, it was no surprise that Thrax was able to find plenty of content regarding dark magic. This type of magic in particular interested Thrax because naturally he held a strong nationalist inclination, and reading about the power of dark magic led him to believe it could be utilized to strengthen Valthiar and perhaps form another areptorate. One success story in particular that Thrax really fixated on was the ancient book, "The Scourge: Origin of Azeroth's Greatest Army." Being that the book was written by the Arch-Necromancer Paltibaal, it held a strong bias toward favoring necromancy, the author often emphasizing the magic's strength which led Thrax to vehemently furthering his studies of the magic. Further Controversies With much of his ambition deriving from "The Scourge: Origin of Azeroth's Greatest Army", Thrax really began to vocalize these ambitions as an early teen, only a few years prior to becoming king. In 2,635 V.R when questioned by some of Valthiar's most powerful nobles regarding his plans as future king, his answer surprised everyone. He told them he wished to change Valthiar into a Mordellist State, utilizing dark magic to form a legion of undead to begin a 3rd areptorate. The concerned nobles informed the king and queen, who were then furious at Thrax, going as far as to imprison him for 6 months in a pitch black cell within Caesotha Dungeon in order to keep him from going to the library and reading about dark magic. In his cell, Thrax had the time to actually practice his dark magic. Though of course he couldn't practice necromancy, he was able to utilize his Izarian Vision to view the soul of a man who had recently died within the prison. With this soul, he was able to create a dim light within the cell as well as reuse the soul to cast some basic Izarimantic spells. Additionally, aside from necromancy, he was able to practice death magic, however he had only himself to practice it on. This began an addiction to death magic usage on himself, and for the rest of his life, Thrax would cast a little on himself to weaken his vitality and help him with insomnia. Though Thrax is noted to already have had some mental disturbances, historians regard these 6 months in prison as a big contributor to his harsh decisions later on in life. Thrax's Ascension to the Throne and the formation of Sertor ''"The look in his eyes... that man knew who was in charge, knew he was going to die." ''-Thrax talking with the historian Velus Constantius regarding the killing of his father. On ‡alenos 1st of 2,636 V.R, Thrax was finally released from his prison, though he was noted by the prison guard to have a long black scar running from his lower abdomen all the way across his right eye, the scar surging with the death magic he had cast on himself during his imprisonment. When reprimanded by the guard on having used the evil magic during his imprisonment, Thrax simply drained the life from him, the guard falling lifelessly to the tile like an empty husk of armor. He then marched up the numerous steps leading to the throne room atop the Valthian Pinnacle, his father the only one currently attending the room while his mother was in the Opera House at the time. With his father's initial surprise as well as anger upon seeing the scar of death magic across Thrax's body, he was also quick to reprimand him just as the prison guard had. However this would result in an equally harsh reaction from Thrax, the young prince extending his hand to then drain the life from his father, supposedly telling him "Your death means nothing, but my ascension means everything. Be grateful that with your fleeting gaze you get to watch the beginning of a new areptorate." Once Thrax's father was dead, in a Total Monarchy, this meant that Thrax ascended to the throne to further the Dawnblade Dynasty, despite the dark manner in which his ascension came about. Shortly after Primus' death, one of the royal guards discretely informed Sertoria during the opera. Sertoria knew that Thrax would come for her next, and so she went to the barracks as well as the armory and announced that due to Primus' death and the ascension of her "insane son" she would be departing the kingdom to form a new faction, and that any who wanted to fight for her could come along. Since many of the soldiers were skeptical of Thrax's capabilities as a king, she gathered around 700 Valthians, around half of which were soldiers, and headed south to form a new city-state in which she named Sertor. First Actions as King Upon being officially crowned the 50th King of Valthiar, Thrax stuck to his word and began to work on normalizing dark magic within Valthiar. In the beginning stages, this ranged anywhere between paying scholars of the Grand Library to study the magic, to designating a pro-death magic propaganda play to be hosted weekly in the Opera House. In Thrax's free time, he spent much of his time wandering outside of the kingdom, slaying wandering citizens of enemy factions and raising them into an army of the dead. Though his advisers warned him of a potential assassination, Thrax was confident in his abilities. Thrax would then of course return to Valthiar with a group of undead minions, the sight often disturbing to the Valthians he casually passed by as the skeletons and ghouls marched alongside him. Despite Thrax's initial efforts, changing the culture of a nation can be a long and tedious process, especially being that Areptus' influence on Valthiar had made it heavily Vitaranist leaning. In order to better acquaint the kingdom with this particular magic, Thrax had opened Valthiar's borders to various undead; anywhere from forsaken to mindless skeletons. He had also allied with a nearby scourge-breakaway faction called Umbria's Coven though more commonly known as "The Sect." These actions would however be met with strong disapproval from Valthians, many people committing hate crimes against the undead; anywhere from severing a limb to blatant murder. The Formation of the Valthian Council To tighten Valthiar's bond with dark magic, Thrax figured that offering more government inclusivity to the undead would be an important next step. With that being said, Thrax had formulated the idea of a council of five; a council that worked together to contribute ideas to the king. For this council, Thrax had appointed three close advisers who were Valthian humans; Aurus Venculus, Relianthalus Agnio, and Phabien Zour. As for the two others, he appointed a Lich and a Forsaken; Tephothuzad and Ignacio Tassis. Many of the Valthians liked the idea of a council, though despised the appointment of the two undead as councilors. Seeing that nothing was working to persuade the Valthians, in 2,637 V.R, two years before the book burnings, Thrax had begun to actually plan the book burnings among his council. Though the humans held the council majority, Relianthalus was a dark mage, and therefore was loyal to Thrax. So all of the council's votes leaned toward Thrax's favor, while Aurus and Phabien were hopeless to prevent any unwanted change. Even centuries later, Tephothuzad remained living on, as well as the council's corruption which eventually outweighed the king's powers. With that being said, the Valthian Council was good in theory yet never truly earned the approval of the majority of Valthiar. The Vitaranist Book Burnings Among Thrax's council, the general consensus was that Vitaranism was too deeply rooted into Valthiar's culture to adapt to Thrax's ideology, the majority of the kingdom's population following the Eight Vitaran Maxims ever since the 1st areptorate. With that being said, a more totalitarian approach toward breaking this culture was conceived; book burnings. These book burnings first came into action on the night of Lœceros 14th, 2,639 V.R. Hundreds of Valthian soldiers were charged with burning all of the Vitaranist books within the Grand Library and after that, to search everywhere else throughout the kingdom for remaining books. Though this was planned at night to prevent an uproar of disapproval, the massive amount of smoke caused by the book burnings had led many to the concern that there was a fire within the kingdom. However upon seeing the soldiers burning the books, many of the civilians had began to violently protest. Due to all the protesters interrupting the book burnings, Centurion Marcus Indaletius was forced to order some of the soldiers to block the entrances to the library. With the amount of Vitaranist faith held by many Valthians though, this did not sway them from attacking the walls of soldiers blocking them from the library, forcing the soldiers to retaliate. By the end of the night, the majority of Vitaranist books had been burned, and additionally over 200 citizens were killed due to their violent protests. Despite the enormity of these protests, they were never formally documented under Thrax's order, and so they were not widely heard of within the kingdom, but rather primarily by those who lost family members to the protests. Throughout the remainder of the week, the rest of the Vitaranist books were sought after throughout the kingdom by any means necessary, even by kicking down doors in search of them. However, the Arch-Priest Hyraclius Cesmidan had gathered many of the books and brought them to a hidden glade within the Aldorn Woodlands south of Valthiar. In the glade, Hyraclius would hold a sermon every Ceralin for dozens of other faithful Vitaranists, however it was difficult to spread word of the sermons without endangering the priests. Six months later, an off-duty soldier heard of the sermons from eavesdropping on a nearby conversation in a tavern, and so he informed Thrax and Thrax went to the glade himself to kill Hyraclius before he could start his next sermon. Though he put up a great fight, Thrax managed to nonetheless kill Hyraclius. Afterward, the Vitaranist books found within the glade were destroyed by him. The particular magic Thrax used to kill Hyraclius intentionally left no scratches on him so that the cause of death would be assumed as a heart attack, though this still left question as to where the books went. Beginning a 3rd Areptorate After the Vitaranist Book Burnings, Valthiar's cultural gradually took a decline, not necessarily toward Mordellism, but secularism. Though it wasn't the ideal outcome, Thrax still figured that the populace would now be less critical of his actions. Now with that out of the way, Thrax had time to plan out the dream he had since he was a child; forming a 3rd areptorate. However an areptorate could not be formed without first annexing a nation, and so Thrax set his sights on Sertor, the City-State that his mother formed three years prior. Thrax had a strong dislike for his mother since she treated him poorly when he was a child, and also managed to escape Valthiar with not only her life, but a bulk of his army. He also despised his mother's distaste for dark magic, wanting to prove to her how strong it is. With that in mind, for the next five years, Thrax had built up an army of the dead to unleash onto Sertor. To fuel this army, Thrax made death penalty laws much more severe, where even crimes such as violent assault were ended with an execution on the assaulter. All the executed prisoners were then brought to Thrax to which he'd raise them into undead minions. The majority of his army was made up of lesser undead such as ghouls and skeletal soldiers, though his most notable minion was a flesh-titan which he named Galgerius. Despite his centurions offering to fight alongside him, Thrax denied, confident in his own army as well as his abilities. On ‡alenos 15th of 2,644 V.R, Thrax began marching his armies southward through the Aldorn Woodlands toward Sertor. Notably, the Aurine River was blocking a clear passage to Sertor, though due to Thrax's towering height of 8"10 along with heavy plated armor, he was able to walk along the riverbed to cross the river despite the harsh current, to which he then cut down a log to create a bridge for his army. Upon Thrax arriving at Sertor, a number of war horns were heard all the way from Valthiar, and a massive amount of archers lined up on the walls to shoot at Thrax. Despite the onslaught, Thrax's armor was practically impenetrable, and so he simply continued to walk toward the city as the arrows bounce off his armor. Behind him followed a massive army of the dead, including the huge flesh-titan Galgerius that would crush multiple trees with every step he took. The fight supposedly began around mid-day but ended at night fall, where after all the Sertorian soldiers were killed, Thrax personally drained the life from his mother and conjured a banshee from her soul. The banshee of Sertoria would then wander the Aldorn woodlands aimlessly for hundreds of years before finally being released by the Archon of Izarius, Prayth. After having annexed the city-state, it was renamed Thraxony (Valthian: ‡raxunê) and Thrax declared Valthiar to have begun a 3rd areptorate. Overall, the Valthian population had mixed thoughts about this step toward a 3rd areptorate, some happy to see Valthiar growing in strength while others pitying the Sertorians who died tragically at the hand of Thrax. The Valthian-Bladespire War and the formation of the Bladespire Tributary After annexing Sertoria, Valthiar gained access to the lush forests of Aldorn which Thrax utilized by ordering an armada to be built. Though Valthian ships weren't necessarily the best, they were nonetheless suitable for transporting Valthian troops across the Ephra Channel which separated Scyth (Now Frostfire Ridge) from Nagrand. However Thrax wasn't focused on annexing Nagrand land quite yet, but rather warring with the nations of Scyth. This began with the Valthian-Bladespire War, a war that began in Lêneros 30th of 2,646 V.R. Though normally the Bladespire Empire would pose quite a threat to Valthiar, Thrax's immense expertise in dark magic proved to be useful. The war nonetheless lasted four years due to the extensive territories that the Bladespire owned, and also the amount of time it took for Thrax to replenish his undead army after each battle. After those four years of conflict, the war finally ended when Thrax along with his undead army stormed Bladespire Citadel with the help of Galgerius destroying the stone barrier blocking the entrance. Thrax then dueled with the Bladespire emperor, Ak'arurth, and ended up victorious. The territory gains from this war when compared to the war against Sertor were far greater, making Valthiar's 3rd areptorate seen by the world as a force to be reckoned with. In addition to the creation of numerous administrative divisions, the Bladespire Tributary was created; a small mining nation at the base of Bladespire Citadel with the sole purpose of supplying the areptorate with weapons. Though the ogres of the tributary lived freely, they often received prejudice from Valthians who attended the town to obtain the weapons. Additionally, despite the tiny nation being overwhelmingly populated by ogres, the lord ruling over the tributary was a Valthian named Ziraemasus Tamaricus. The Valthian-Gorian War After annexing much of the territories within Scyth, there was a short period of peace within Valthiar lasting between 2,646 to 2,650 V.R. During this time, Thrax had organized Valthiar's new territories by assigning imperators, or military-governors to rule over the various states. Additionally, he had replenished his undead army in preparation of the next war to come. This war would eventually come four years after the Valthian-Bladespire War in Draecos 23rd of 2,650 V.R when Thrax ordered his new armada to transport around 3,000 Valthian soldiers to northern Nagrand. Though this war is known historically as the Valthian-Gorian War, many of the battles the Valthians entered were with various tribes and clans that were recently liberated from the Gorian Empire. After three years, this war ended on Lûmeros 1st of 2,653 V.R with Thrax's army storming Highmaul and killing all the soldiers and civilians within along with the imperator, Thrul'gok. With the addition of some new administrative divisions within the areptorate, another tributary known as the Gorian Tributary was created. This tributary was located within the lower district of Highmaul, and its sole purpose was to fund the areptorate. Further Military Gains After taking most of northern Nagrand, Valthiar was, for the most part, in a period of peace. However, this next decade would only be considered a period of peace because Valthiar was in no serious wars. Both the Bladespire and Gorian empires were taken down, and the remaining conflicts that the 3rd Areptorate had were mostly with small tribes and clans that posed no real threat to the massive nation. Though these conflicts were minor, it eventually increased Valthiar's territory quite a bit to the point of the areptorate owning the entirety of Nagrand by 2,660 V.R. Thrax's Death Thrax's death, in comparison with some other historical figures, was rather sudden and unforeseen. His death involved the 73rd Archon of Mordellis, Nibiru. Despite Nibiru seeming like a distant figure irrelevant to the areptorate, the strength of the areptorate eventually made Thrax known across Azeroth. Though Nibiru would seemingly be an ally if anything of the Mordellis-worshipping areptor, he on the contrary saw him as an enemy. This is due to Nibiru's faction, the Order of Shadows, being based in Alonia, and the last three archons of Mordellis also happened to be Alonian. Though Tsige was not involved in the order, Asano Arkitasu, the 72nd Archon of Mordellis, brought great strength to the order in which Nibiru now ruled. This very strength came from the Mordellic Archons which existed as heirs to the order, acquiring leadership upon the previous Archon dying. Being that Thrax had no association with the Order of Shadows, if Nibiru were to die, Thrax was very likely to inherit Archonship due to his immense power, which in turn would weaken the order. With that in mind, Nibiru took his two most powerful disciples, Atomi Suemoto and Saiko Arikore, on a journey to Valthiar to find Thrax and kill him. Though normally Nibiru would be fine killing anyone on his own, despite Thrax not being an Archon, he was still incredibly powerful and could greatly injure Nibiru and possibly even kill him. On the evening of Æveros 8th, 2,660 V.R, Nibiru and his disciples snuck into the throne room using a shadow stealth spell, waiting there until Thrax returned. Once he finally had returned, Nibiru and his disciples then ambushed Thrax, starting a long battle that supposedly took an entire hour. Though there were royal guards nearby, they were reportedly too frightened to intervene, knowing that engaging in a battle between the powerful four could lead to certain death. In the end, Thrax had died, though not without killing both of Nibiru's disciples and skeletonizing half of Nibiru's face. Those who hated Thrax were relieved they didn't have to live under his rule anymore, especially being that Thrax was capable of immortality due to his magic, and the Valthian government would allow his rule until death. After his death, all of Thrax's undead army was released from his control, causing the areptorate to quickly fall and the Dead King's War to begin. Though not much is known regarding Thrax's wives other than the fact he supposedly killed two of them, his son, Nero Dawnblade, had then replaced him to become the new areptor. Legacy Out of all the Valthian kings, Thrax is among the most notable, just behind Areptus. Not only did he form the 3rd Valthian areptorate, making himself known as the 1st areptor of that areptorate, but he is known as the catalyst that ushered in the dark age within the kingdom, and he is also known to be the tallest king of Valthiar and among the tallest of humans to ever exist on Azeroth, towering at nearly nine feet tall. Of all the Valthian kings, he is the first to ever endorse dark magic, the only other Valthian king to ever endorse it being his son, Nero LI. Though the approval of Areptus is in consensus, Thrax's approval is at a strong split; either Valthians strongly approve of him, or strongly disapprove of him. Personality Thrax as a child was known to be very stoic and reserved, seldom speaking with others but instead preferring to be left alone. Nonetheless, he would still express happiness or amusement when watching a performance in the Opera House. As a child, he was also known to practice death magic on small animals, whether they be dead or alive. What was most worrying about this is that he appeared to express no remorse in the pain he caused. That along with many of his other actions led people to believe that Thrax held a "the ends justify the means" mindset, and could never empathize with others. After Thrax's six months in prison, he began to express a cold, cynical attitude toward humans. Tertius Matho, a noble who frequently spoke with Thrax, was recorded of saying "Despite my many years of service to him (Thrax), his ceaseless distrust in me was clarified just a few days ago where he expressed his adoration for the risen dead, and how they blindly follow their master with no capacity for plotting against him." Later that day after Tertius' remark was leaked he was executed, though this only reinforced his claims. Along with cynicism, Thrax's maturity also brought forth a meticulous contentiousness, where if anyone did something even slightly incorrectly, Thrax would berate them for their incompetence. Thrax additionally retained all of his childhood personality traits except after his six months in prison, he was never seen to express happiness or amusement again. Thrax was also perceived to be an aggressive expansionist that possessed an unwarranted resentment to non-Valthians, where he was recorded of saying "The mere existence of these inferior factions is an insult to my areptorate." Death's Grasp Thrax is acknowledged as one of the strongest non-Archonic mordellimancers in history, and this was emphatic when he managed to kill two other immensely powerful mordellimancers all the while fighting Nibiru. With that being said, Thrax carried a myriad of powerful abilities in his arsenal, and had even created a unique spell of his own. This unique spell would be known as Death's Grasp. With Death's Grasp, Thrax was capable of converting a living creature only partly undead, which would obviously be a massive encumbrance on his opponent. This ability could however only be targeted on outer body parts such as the eyes or hands. Evidence of Death's Grasp being used was seen after Nibiru's battle with Thrax, where Nibiru came out of the fight with half of his face skeletonized. Most notably, these injuries resulted in Nibiru losing one of his eyes. Death's Grasp is cast by placing one's hand on the body part he or she wishes to decay, then channeling a mordellimantic tether to direct mordellimantic energy on to the enemy's body. The longer this tether is maintained, the further the mordellimantic energy will spread, meaning that this spell can slowly decay a living creature's body. Though the spell takes a lengthy thirty minutes to decay a human's entire body, there is yet to be a spell developed to reverse the damage done, meaning that Death's Grasp causes irreversible damage to the enemy. With that being said, it is a very threatening spell if left unchecked. The decay caused by Death's Grasp travels from the end of the tether to the skin surrounding it and so on until the entire creature's skin has decayed. During this process the spell is incredibly painful, though as the pain receptors are destroyed the pain fades. Death's Grasp is an immensely difficult spell to learn, known to only have ever been practiced by Thrax and later on Nibiru.